Honestly, does baseball need to just fire every umpire it has and start over? How do they justify this crap? What makes this situation interesting is that this crew had previously missed a call at home plate in which Giants first baseman Brandon Belt was incorrectly ruled out after he appeared to slide into home safely. Both plays are included in the provided video clip link, so you're welcome to judge for yourselves.

"I'd say what I think about this, but I'm too much of a class act. Besides, I still have a batting title to win."

Nope. That play has already been discussed in this thread. Someone needs to do something about MLB umpires. There is absolutely no accountability where their job performance is concerned, as any disciplinary actions taken against them are rarely made public, and they're not required to answer questions from the media following a controversial call. The way that Angel Hernandez ducked the media after the blown home run call in Cleveland was pathetic.

Speaking of Hernandez, wasn't Steve McMichael supposed to beat the **** out of him? Why hasn't it happened yet?

First time I saw it. It is now officially the worst call I have ever seen. And how could the ump, if he had his eye open, not seen who had the ball after the play and not corrected it?
He should be fired immediately. No discipline, just fired.

Shouldn't he have been out anyway for running out of the baseline? His foot hit the corner of the grass and he couldn't even reach third with his arm fully extended.

That would have been an even worse call. The baseline is defined as the runner's route to the base, not by the dirt and grass, with the exception of the box up the first base line, which has limited application. Runners regularly run outside the basepaths. A runner can run onto the infield grass to get from base to base. A runner can run around a catcher blocking the plate. What he isn't supposed to do and should be called out for is run out his defined baseline when a fielder is attempting to tag him and for that purpose, umpires give runners several feet in each direction. It is purely a judgment call with limited application, and it is rarely made.

As a tangent that isn't completely off topic, when I was coaching my junior high school's team a long time ago, I carried my rulebook with the approved rulings in italics because in places like Parker and Lake Havasu they would have some social studies teacher umpiring the games, believing he knew the rules because he was a fan. I once had an umpire insist a hitter who foul tipped a 2-1 pitch into the catcher's glove was out and a runner called out at third base on a hidden ball trick after a coaching visit to the mound. I half won the argument on the foul tip call, because the runner who stole second was sent back to first on the "foul ball," but I lost the hidden ball trick that was never properly put back into play after the time out on the grounds that it was done in a Bad News Bears sequel that was running on HBO that month, and in that game, they were using major league umpires in the Astrodome.

That would have been an even worse call. The baseline is defined as the runner's route to the base, not by the dirt and grass, with the exception of the box up the first base line, which has limited application. Runners regularly run outside the basepaths. A runner can run onto the infield grass to get from base to base. A runner can run around a catcher blocking the plate. What he isn't supposed to do and should be called out for is run out his defined baseline when a fielder is attempting to tag him and for that purpose, umpires give runners several feet in each direction. It is purely a judgment call with limited application, and it is rarely made.

I thought the general rule of thumb is a runner has to at least be within reach of the bag on a slide, that way he can't slide completely away from the bag by some ten feet like the runner did here where he clearly can't reach the base. If I'm not mistaken the rules for home are different, so they'd be irrelevant in this case.

I thought the general rule of thumb is a runner has to at least be within reach of the bag on a slide, that way he can't slide completely away from the bag by some ten feet like the runner did here where he clearly can't reach the base. If I'm not mistaken the rules for home are different, so they'd be irrelevant in this case.

The approved ruling holds that a runner is supposed to be able to reach the base on a slide into a base in which he is already out if he adversely affects the fielder from making a play to another base, otherwise the runner can be called for interference, in which case the teammate who would have been put out in the umpire's judgment would be called out. If a fielder is blocking a base, with or without the ball, the runner can go around him. This is true at second base as well as home. A fielder can be called for obstruction for blocking a base without the ball, but this is another judgment call as the fielder may receive the ball as the runner gets to the base.

Running out of the baseline applies to a runner avoiding an attempted tag from a fielder, not running to the base to avoid an inevitable tag. I have seen runners going around second base to get into it when it is blocked. Running out of the baseline also can be called when a runner is hit by a thrown ball on his way to first if he is within the box that runs down the line from the base. I have heard that umpires have called out runners for running in fair territory up the line if umpires ruled they did so to interfere with the play and caused an error (a bogus call in my view -- if you want to argue the batter runner interfered with you, hit him with your throw), but I have never seen it without the ball hitting the runner. I have, however, seen the ball hit the runner in fair territory without being called out.

Running out of the baseline is all about umpire's judgment and can even depend on the umpire judging a runner's intent. It isn't as if there is a designated out of bounds area where an umpire has to call out a runner.

I thought the general rule of thumb is a runner has to at least be within reach of the bag on a slide, that way he can't slide completely away from the bag by some ten feet like the runner did here where he clearly can't reach the base. If I'm not mistaken the rules for home are different, so they'd be irrelevant in this case.